Heated Conversation
by Fragile B
Summary: Danny and Ember discuss his future after a battle for the crown.


Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, obviously.

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It was a cold day in Amity Park. Not freezing, but cold enough that all the moms made sure their kids had sweaters on.

Now, cold days aren't very interesting in of themselves. Even when weatherman Lance Thunder had predicted a warm week with only light rain on the weekend. That mistake could be chalked up to the fact that he was reporting ghost caused weather more often than naturally caused.

No, what was interesting about it being a cold day was that the actual cold seemed to follow one solemn seventeen year old as he wandered around the city.

What could be bothering him was anyone's guess, after all, this was a time of celebration!

A week ago Amity Park had endured the worst series of ghost attacks since the city was pulled into the Ghost Zone!

The plant ghost Undergrowth had returned, growing throughout the city while Phantom was busy fighting Technus and his new collection of robotic soldiers. Things looked so bad that when Vortex showed up and started doing battle with Undergrowth he was greeted with more sighs of exasperation than screams of terror.

Luckily nobody was severely injured. As the ghostly giants started to fight a strange ram like ghost appeared and herded everyone to safety. Nobody remembered anything after that, but when they woke up it was pretty clear what had happened. Phantom somehow managed to beat all of the ghosts back to the ghost zone.

People were so caught up in there own personal celebrations of being alive that no one saw a wisp of blue mist come out of the strange teens mouth and were only mildly curious when they saw him run into an alley.

"Going Ghost," mumbled Danny as he slipped into the alley, signaling the beginning of his transformation into his famous counterpart.

Comfortably floating an couple inches above the ground Danny let his hands glow green with ectoplasm waiting to be fired at the slightest hint of trouble.

"Okay, show yourself! I really don't want to deal with this right now!" Danny's face was more one of annoyance than any kind of fear or anticipation.

"Cool it, Babypop," Ember grinned, fading into view behind Danny. She was sitting on her floating guitar with her legs hanging carelessly of the side. She was wearing her usual ensemble of a revealing black top with skin tight leather pants, her fiery hair causally hanging over her shoulder. There was only one difference. Today she was wearing a new accessory.

Ember smirked when she saw Danny glare at the top of her head. "What? Don't you like it? I heard you were getting one and I thought it work well with yours!"

"That's not funny, Ember," sighed Danny. He shot the small crown she was wearing off the top of her head. "And I'm not getting a crown because I'm not taking the throne."

"You're not!" Ember shouted, surprised. "But I thought that was decided? Who is than? I thought everyone had already picked a side?"

"Nobody is," Danny replied, floating higher, out of the alley and into the wide open sky.

"What does that mean!" Ember shot into the air until she was right in Danny's face. "Don't you remember that huge fight over the throne? I sided with you, then you won! That makes you king!"

"I don't want to be king! I don't want to rule anything! I never have!" Danny huffed out a blast of cold air in a futile attempt to calm down. "I didn't ask to become a ghost! I didn't ask my parents to try a capture and experiment on me while I try to protect the town! These are things I can't change and have to deal with! I am not going to just deal with another giant responsibility that I didn't ask for!"

"Whoa." Ember was speechless. "That was passionate, I like passionate."

Ember's hair was flickering wildly.

Danny floated back a bit, blushing. He didn't know if it was because of her words or because of the small icicles he now had growing out of hair.

"Yeah, well..." stammered Danny. "I can get why Frostbite or Pandora might want me to be king, but why would you? We fight all the time!"

Smirking at Danny's obvious embarrassment, Ember closed the distance he put between them and put her arms loosely around his neck. Danny's entire face was now a light green as he tried not to pay attention to how close they were.

"I was just playing around, Babypop! Nothing like a good fight to warm up before a show! Well, almost nothing..." whispered Ember into Danny's ear.

Danny shook his head. She was playing with him. Not that that was all bad. He pushed himself out of her grip. "You didn't answer the question," accused Danny, "why would you want me to be king?"

Ember frowned at the renewed distance between the two. "Well, why wouldn't I, dipstick? I wasn't there the last time the Ghost Zone had a proper ruler, but you in charge would have to be better than what we have now!"

Danny opened his mouth to interrupt, but the look in her eyes had him quickly close it.

"The Observants trying to order everyone around, Walker arresting anyone who doesn't follow his stupid rules, and everyone else joining one of the fossil kingdoms, hiding in their lairs, or just fighting it out with anyone who looks at them the wrong way! Most of the top players like you! So maybe you can stop the giant pissing contest that is the Ghost Zone right now!"

Ember's chest was heaving and her hair was blazing.

"Whoa, passionate," echoed Danny, one eyebrow up and a smile forming. But then he got serious again. "And I didn't even know about that! I'm barely in the Ghost Zone! Half human, remember? Being half ghost isn't enough. I was fourteen when I died, now I'm seventeen! I age! I can't rule the Ghost Zone while making minimum wage!"

Ember just scoffed at his excuse. "You'll stop aging when you become king." As if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

Danny opened his mouth, froze, closed it, and then shook his head.

"Well... ignoring that... and I have to ignore that right now 'cause it's just not being processed, I still have family. I can't just leave them, and I definitely can't explain this to them."

Ember smiled, he was grasping at straws.

"That family?" said Ember, pointing at the brightly coloured ghost hunters arming themselves in the street below. Far below, Ember noticed. They had floated pretty high during this talk. "The family that's preparing to shoot at you right now? Even getting over the weird relationship you got goin' on with your folks you'll still have enough time to see them between ruling and my concerts."

Danny looked up from his parents at that last bit. Once again finding himself much closer to Ember than he expected, once again he couldn't find it in him to complain.

"Your concerts?" smiled Danny, ignoring the ectoplasm that shot to the right of him. Too wide, they'll have to do better than that.

"Of course," smirked Ember, "No boyfriend of mine is missing one of my concerts!"

"Boyfriend? Where did that come from?"

"Did you really think I would let anyone else play with my new toy? That crown you ruined wasn't just to mess with you, Babypop, you're mine now!" Danny grinned, this day was going from crap to great very quickly!

"I haven't even said I would accept the throne!" Ember smiled, her hair flaring out, destroying another stray shot from the Fentons.

"Of course you are," said Ember, "as a matter of fact, we're going back to my lair right now to celebrate!"

Ember spun around, glanced back at Danny and winked. "You coming?" the rock star said before shooting off towards the Fenton Portal.

Danny didn't even blink before following. He would work something out with his parents later. Jazz will support him, probably. Sam and Tucker might be harder to convince, but it will work out. How could it not? He went out today to brood about his crappy life and try not to freeze the house and now he has a HOT girlfriend, and being king doesn't sound as bad anymore.

Now he was going to go celebrate. Everything else can wait.


End file.
